Places

Christmas in Vietnam. Say or think what you want about the Army, good morale is what keeps it going. It does everything it can during the holiday season to raise the spirits of the soldiers, many away from home for the first time.

I don’t remember if my parents laughed like my sisters did or if they just smiled

Bud Stupi

It was Christmas in the early 1950s; people just getting over World War II. Wages were such that raising three children, paying for a house, heat, food and a car was stretching dollars to the limit.
I attended Catholic school in Baltimore, complete with Dominican sisters and priests of some order. I rode a bus to and from school as it was several miles away. We had a Christmas tree in the school hallway, decorated no doubt with ancient holy ornaments.

Making resolutions to be more active in 2019? Start the New Year off on the right foot with a first day hike. Last year nearly 28,000 people welcomed 2018 by hiking a collective 66,000 miles across the country on January 1.

In the great American melting pot, many families have a specialty that makes the holidays taste like home. Many of these recipes were passed down by family members who immigrated to the U.S.
Bay Weekly reached out to our friends and neighbors to see what food and drink from around the world are featured on their tables. We’re happy to share their treasured recipes with you.

The music bug bit Mickey Cashman early and apparently incurably.
“Some time around third grade, I knew that I wanted to always have music in my life,” the 18-year-old says.
He pursued his passion through elementary, middle and high school by joining choral groups, performing musical theater and studying at the Jarrett Studio of Vocal Arts in St. Leonard. All that hard work has won him an extraordinary international experience like no other.

The holidays came a little early this year for some 45,000 Anne Arundel County Public Library patrons. With the generosity of a converted Ebenezer Scrooge, all overdue fines accumulated between September 24 and December 14 have been waived.
“We are happy to offer this gesture of goodwill to our customers who patiently stood by us during our recent cyber attack,” said Library CEO Hampton ‘Skip’ Auld.

Two former gym members are living their best lives by helping others do the same as the new owners of Chesapeake Health and Fitness Club in Deale.
Kristina Gardiner and Vanessa Runion purchased the club from Linda Strohecker.
The approximate 1,600 members are “an eclectic group of people,” Strohecker says. On the day the club opened in 2010, she spotted “two men on treadmills wearing work boots. We give people the opportunity to work out in their comfort zone.”

Chesapeake Country isn’t just friendly. We’re also bike friendly.
So says the League of American Bicyclists which, on December 6, recognized Annapolis and Anne Arundel County with a bronze Bicycle Friendly Community award.
Both county and city join 464 biking districts across the country.

“He created a destination with his trains,” Marygrace Baergen says as she gestures across the kitchen table to her brother Tom Crockett.
A pile of thank-you notes and old pictures are scattered on the table. Cardboard boxes wait to be unpacked in Crockett’s new house in Rose Haven, where he moved from the apartment at his former business, Tan’s Cycles in North Beach.